Van Turner Responds

The SCDP Chair takes issue with my post below; I offer his response, unedited:


Steve:

I appreciate our criticism, but I believe it is one-sided and horribly misplaced.  I believe your blog should read more along the lines of asking Carol Chumney or Glenn Wright to step-up.  As we had discussed before, these two candidates have been identified.  I have personally met with both and asked for them to step-up because I knew Amy was working hard.  Jackson Baker in his article even mentioned the fact these were the two possibilities on our side.  Numerous calls have been made to both Carol and Glenn to get one to step-up. 

Now, I also believe you shot down the convention idea.  The convention would have least identified a candidate in about two weeks because it would have forced Glenn and Carol to get off their respective fences and participate in the process.  Now, what you can expect is more fence-riding until the December 8th filing deadline unless one of them makes up their minds to announce soon. This is exactly what we were attempting to prevent.  As it stands now, Amy will have another month and a half to campaign and raise monies without an announced Democratic contender.  Hopefully, this public discussion will prompt either Glenn or Carol to expedite a decision. 

So, on one end you fault us for the convention idea.  On the other end, you fault us for not getting off our rear-ends and having a candidate by now.  Also, I take issue with your last comment.  I believe we need to run candidates who appeal in a general-wide election.  What happens too often is that the primaries are like municipal races which are typically dominated by African-American voters, but unlike the primary,  independents and moderates are the swing votes in the general election.  A quick review of the results from 2002, 2006 and 2010 support what I am saying.  Now, this still does not mean issues at the Election Commission have not been a factor, but we have to at some point recognize that a county-wide race (general) is different from a city-wide race (primary). 

The idea behind the convention was to attempt to present candidates who are electable in a general-wide election.  When Democrats won overwhelmingly in 2008, we had just those types of candidates back then:  (1) Judge John Fowlkes, (2) Paul Mattila, (3) Cheyenne Johnson, and (4) Otis Jackson.  I believe the data indicates the type of candidate who can win county-wide and the type of candidate who cannot. 

In conclusion, I again take issue with you blaming us for everything when we have presented ideas and presented potential candidates and have been shot down.  I think a more constructive approach would be to urge Glenn or Carol to make up their minds and run because they have been identified and both have demonstrated an interest in running.  I am copying my Executive Committee on this response, and if you can, please post my response.

Thanks,

Van Turner, Chair
Shelby County Democratic Party